1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is generally directed to coinless gaming environment, and more particularly, to coinless gaming environment utilizing bar coded gaming coupons.
2. Description of the Related Art
Centralized gaming systems having a plurality of gaming machines connected to a central processing system are well known in the prior art. Typically, these prior art systems include one or more processors managing wagering and credit data for a variety of gaming machines such as slot machines, pinball machines, and video gaming machines. Most prior art gaming machines include a currency acceptor in which a player can insert paper currency, coins or special tokens distributed by the gaming establishment. Upon the insertion of any of these types of currencies, the gaming machine will validate the amount of currency entered into the machine and will grant the player access to the game stored on the gaming machine.
The prior art also discloses gaming systems in which either a central system or an individual gaming machine maintains a credit balance for the gaming machine such that a player can insert an amount of currency more than is required to play a single game and can successively play until the amount entered is depleted. Additionally, the prior art gaming systems also allow a player to accumulate winnings in the credit balance to be used for future plays. Although a player can receive his or her winnings at any time, players typically use their winnings to fund successive plays.
Many of the prior art gaming systems utilize coins or tokens to distribute winnings from play of the games. Upon user initiation of a xe2x80x9ccash out,xe2x80x9d the gaming machine distributes the currency in an amount equal to the value of credit accumulated by the player. In some instances, the amount of currency stored in the machine may be insufficient to cover the player""s winnings and an attendant must be summoned either to distribute winnings or issue a credit voucher.
The use of coins or tokens in gaming establishments present significant problems to gaming machine players. Because of their physical dimensions, coins are bulky and difficult to transport. Players often are required to carry large containers to transport their winnings from the gaming machines. This type of winnings places burdens on the player in the form of having to carry a typically heavy object over the course of a period of play and to maintain careful watch over the container so as not to lose the winnings. Additionally, the player is exposed to a greater security risk in that an unscrupulous individual can easily ascertain which players have been successful at the gaming machines. Finally, coins or tokens, by the general nature, may be dirty as they are handled by a great number of people throughout a short period of time.
The use of coins or tokens in gaming establishments also present significant problems to the providers of the gaming machines. Gaming machines must be configured to accommodate a sufficient reserve of coins or tokens to provide for a majority of the payoffs to a player. Additionally, in some situations, the gaming machine provider must empty the coins when the machine gets too full. Furthermore, because coins or tokens of different values are typically of different dimensions, each gaming machine must have different inputs to accommodate each value of coin or distinguishing means to accept the variety of dimension coins. Accordingly, because multiple inputs are costly and impractical, some prior art gaming machines limit the denomination of coins which they will accept. Thus, a player wishing to wager a different denomination coin would have to cash out and play another machine. Finally, in terms of the accounting, the gaming machine providers must maintain an inventory of coins or tokens to accommodate player need and must implement additional machinery and personnel to count the coin.
Some of the prior art systems have implemented a system in which game coupons are incorporated into the gaming system. One such system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,290,033 to Bittner. The Bittner patent is directed primarily to a gaming machine which dispenses pull-tab game coupons in which the player lifts the tab to determine whether the play is successful. On winning pull-tab game coupons, the value of the amount of winnings is encoded on the coupon to be read by a gaming machine or by a cashier.
The system disclosed in the Bittner patent, and other similar prior art systems, focuses primarily on the value credit won by the player being encoded on the face of the coupon. As such, the central processor in these prior art systems does not participate in dictating the amount of credit represented by each coupon. As mentioned in the Bittner disclosure, encoding the value of credit on the ticket poses significant security risks. The prior art systems address these security concerns by augmenting the system with a secondary encoded random number on the coupon. This secondary random number is referenced to a list in memory which dictates whether the ticket has been cashed in and possibly to verify that the value encoded on the coupon matches a comparison value in memory. Because the prior art system requires both value and security number data, the size of coupon must be sufficiently large to adequately accommodate both numbers or the size of the numbers must be reduced to fit within the area of the gaming coupon. Thus, these system are deficient in effectively providing the most security to the gaming coupon.
Other prior art systems attempt to eliminate the use of coins by the incorporation of magnetic stripe cards or smart cards such as debit or credit cards. Typically, the prior art systems require a user to obtain the card prior to gaming. Because of its inconvenience and because some customers do not feel comfortable providing to a gaming establishment the information necessary to get a card, most of these type of prior art systems only offer the magnetic stripe reader as a feature for some players and most still retain the coin/currency system of the prior art. Thus, these systems have failed to implement a completely coinless gaming environment.
Because of the inconveniences posed to players and gaming establishment in maintaining a coin-based system and because of the problems associated with a value encoded gaming coupon, there is a need for coinless gaming environment incorporating solely an encoded identifier on the gaming media.
Based on the above-noted deficiencies in the prior art, it is an object of the invention to provide a coinless gaming environment utilizing solely a unique identifier encoded on a gaming media.
This and other objects of the present invention are implemented in a gaming system for implementing coinless gaming environment having a central processing system interconnected to a plurality of gaming machines and a plurality of change machines. The central processing system includes a processor and a memory having a plurality of memory locations for storing data. Each memory location is identified by a unique address in memory. In communication with the central processing system are a plurality of gaming machines. Each gaming machine contains an input for accepting encoded media, which preferably is a gaming coupon, and an optional input for accepting standard paper currency. The gaming machines also contain an output including a bar code printer for encoded and distributing gaming coupons to a player. Finally, the gaming machines include a gaming credit display that allows a player to monitor the status of the amount of credit he or she has won.
The central processing system is also in communication with one or more (or none) change machines. Similar to the gaming machines, the change machines include an input for accepting the gaming coupons, an input for accepting paper currency and an output for generating and dispensing encoded gaming coupons. The change machines also include an output for dispensing value either in the form of paper currency and/or coins.
The system of the present invention is implemented by the central processing system in communication with the gaming machines and the change machines disbursed throughout the gaming environment. To initiate a play, a player can first approach the change machine and insert an appropriate amount of paper currency into the input of the change machine. The change machine reads the value represented by the inserted paper currency and stores the value in a memory location in the central processing system memory. The change machine then generates an encoded gaming coupon having a unique identifier with the address of the memory location in a bar code format on the coupon.
Having been issued a gaming coupon, the player is free to use the gaming coupons to initiate one or more games in a gaming machine. To initiate a play, the player inserts the gaming coupon into the input of a gaming machine. The gaming machine accepts the coupon and reads the unique identifier encoded on the coupon. The central memory then accesses the memory location associated with the identifier and credits an individual gaming machine credit balance with the particular gaming machine an amount equal to the credit value stored in memory. As the player continues to game, the gaming machine credit balance is incremented or decremented. If the player wishes to stop playing that particular gaming machine, the gaming machine generates an encoded gaming coupon by storing the value of the gaming machine credit balance into a different central memory location and generating a gaming coupon with a new unique identifier in bar code format associated with the memory location.
In the event that the player has not exchanged currency for gaming coupons prior to approaching the gaming machines, the present invention also discloses a gaming machine with a paper currency reader which accepts and reads currency and which provides the value of the currency in the individual gaming machine credit balance.
Once the player wishes to receive the cash value encoded in memory, the player can approach any change machine or cashiers station. Similar to initiating a play in a gaming machine, the player inserts the gaming coupon in the change machine input and the unique identifier is read. The appropriate memory location corresponding to the unique identifier is queried and the resulting value stored in memory is dispensed by the change machine.
The system of the present invention implements a coinless gaming environment in which a player is not required to carry bulky coins or tokens. By having a unique identifier encoded on the ticket, the central system can process data quicker and provide security for the system.